KR20140020910A - Selecting social endorsement information for an advertisement for display to a viewing user - Google Patents

Abstract

In the present invention, the social networking system provides an advertisement with a social endorsement that includes information about a friend of the user watching in the social networking system for display to the user watching. The social endorsement is selected from social information maintained by the social networking system. To select a social endorsement, the social networking system identifies the social networking system objects associated with the advertisement, as well as interactions between these objects and other users connected with the user watching in the social networking system, each interaction Is about a candidate social endorsement. Intimacy scores can be calculated for each candidate social endorsement, which indicates a measure of the expected interest of the user watching in each candidate social endorsement. The social networking system selects the social endorsement and provides the social endorsement with the advertisement for display to the user watching. In one embodiment, the selection is based on calculated affinity scores.

Description

Selecting social endorsement information for advertising to display to viewers {SELECTING SOCIAL ENDORSEMENT INFORMATION FOR AN ADVERTISEMENT FOR DISPLAY TO A VIEWING USER}

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention generally relates to online advertising, and more particularly to a method of selecting social endorsement information and providing the user with a social networking system along with the online advertising.

Online advertising has evolved into a lucrative business, with all commercial private entities placing ads on websites and in native applications, allowing viewers to access these websites and applications. To display the advertisement. The advertiser may provide advertisements that are more relevant to the viewer's interest through the ability to analyze data related to the particular website, application and / or user watching. More relevant ads may include the possibility of ad conversion (e.g., a user watching while watching an ad, clicking on the ad, going to the advertiser's website, or otherwise responding to the ad as an intended result); / Or increase the effectiveness of the advertisement by increasing the likelihood of greater demand or awareness of the advertiser's goods or services.

Ad targeting attempts to increase ad conversion by showing advertisements that are more relevant to the user's interests while watching. Ads accompanied by a social context, such as information about friends' activities about being advertised, may further increase the relevance of the ad. Providing social context information with an advertisement increases the effectiveness of the advertisement, but there may be a lot of social context information available to any given individual. Current advertising systems lack the ability to select the most relevant and effective social information and provide it as a social context or social endorsement with the advertisement. Thus, there is a need for a comprehensive solution that identifies candidate social endorsements, selects the most relevant and effective ones and provides them as social endorsement information with the advertisement.

In order to address the needs of advertisers to provide socially relevant advertising to users watching while using social networking system data, embodiments of the present invention select candidate social endorsements based on calculated affinity scores. To serve as social endorsement information.

In one embodiment, a request for social endorsement information is displayed that is displayed with an advertisement to a viewing user that is a user of the social networking system. Objects within the social networking system related to the advertisement are identified, and interactions between these objects and social networking system users associated with the user being viewed are also identified. Thus, candidate social endorsements include identified interactions, interacting users, and interacted objects. Intimacy scores can be calculated between the viewing user and each candidate social endorsement. The candidate social endorsement is selected to be displayed with the advertisement. This choice may be chosen based on the calculated affinity score.

Embodiments of the present invention select candidate social endorsements and provide them as social endorsement information using a variety of methods. In one embodiment, an advertisement tag is used to identify social networking system objects about an advertisement. Alternatively, the advertiser, third party publisher or social networking system may identify social networking system objects related to the advertisement. Social networking system objects may be social networking system users or user profiles, webpages, content items, events, retailers, locations or any other social that may be interacted with by a social networking system user. It may include networking system data. In one embodiment, users of a social networking system associated with a viewing user include "friends" of the viewing user in the context of the social networking system. Alternatively, such related users may include users who have communicated with a user viewing via a social networking system, or users determined by the social networking system are associated with a user viewing outside the context of the social networking system. In one embodiment, interaction with an object includes clicking a button that represents a guarantee of the object (eg, a "Like" button). In another embodiment, the interaction includes making a purchase, communicating within a social networking system, or subscribing to a social networking system group or fan page. In one embodiment, at least one identified friend has interacted with one or more objects, each interaction comprising an individual candidate social endorsement.

The intimacy score may be calculated based on the relationship between the user watching and the related user of each candidate social endorsement. Alternatively, the intimacy score may be calculated based on the type of interaction, the type of object interacted, the type of advertisement, and / or the identity of the user watching. In some embodiments, the intimacy score for a particular interaction may attenuate over time, and the rate of attenuation may vary depending on the identity of the associated user or the type of object or interaction. Selecting a candidate social endorsement and providing it as social endorsement information based on the intimacy score includes selecting a candidate social endorsement with the highest intimacy score. In another embodiment, selecting candidate social endorsements includes selecting an intimacy score based only on some basis. In another embodiment, selecting includes selecting candidate social endorsements that do not have the highest affinity score.

Are included in the scope of the present invention.

1 is a diagram of a process for providing social endorsement information for display with an advertisement, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a high level block diagram illustrating a system environment suitable for selecting social endorsement information for display with an advertisement to a viewing user, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a block diagram illustrating a process for selecting social endorsement information from one or more candidate social endorsements for display with an advertisement, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a block diagram of a process for selecting social endorsement information for a particular example, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
5 is a flowchart of a process for selecting social endorsement information for display with an advertisement, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
The drawings illustrate various embodiments of the present invention by way of example only. Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that alternative embodiments of the configurations and methods described herein may be utilized without departing from the principles of the invention disclosed herein through the following description.

summary

An online social networking system includes a social graph that provides a user of a social networking system that includes a plurality of users or one or more computing devices that store a social network and that has the ability to communicate and interact with other users of the social networking system. do. Users can explicitly associate themselves with social networking systems and form relationships with other users of social networking systems. When two users are connected, this is called "friends", "contacts", "connections" or "associates" within the context of the social networking system. Alternatively, the relationship may be automatically created by the social networking system based on the common characteristics of the users (eg, users with a common employer, a common friend, or a common movie). Connected users can generally access more information about each other than are available to other unconnected users by establishing relationships within a social networking system. Similarly, a user can be connected within a social networking system to gain more access to communicate with another user, such as via email (inside and outside the social networking system), instant messages, text messages, telephones or any other communication interface. . Eventually, the user may be connected to access, view, comment on, download or endorse another user's uploaded content item. Examples of content items include messages, queued messages (eg, email), text and SMS (short messaging service) messages, comment messages, messages sent using any other suitable messaging technique, HTTP links, HTML files. , Images, videos, audio clips, documents, document edits, calendar entries or events, other user-generated content, and other computer-related files.

An online social networking system can track objects through the use of a social graph that includes a plurality of nodes interconnected to a plurality of edges. In the social graph, nodes represent objects in the context of a social networking system. Common examples of objects are users, content items, groups, webpages, fan pages, events, messages, concepts, interactions, information, activities, data, computer applications, advertisements. Or any other entity that can be represented within a social networking system. Companies, locations, places, merchants, bands, non-user personalities, restaurants or any other entity can be represented directly as a social networking system object, or a group, webpage or in a social networking system dedicated to that entity. It can be indirectly represented as an object through a fan page. For example, a restaurant "Refuge" or a place "Orpheum Theater" may have dedicated objects within a social networking system; Alternatively, Refuge can have a fan page and Orpheum Theater can have a web page on a social networking system.

Edges between nodes in a social graph represent a particular kind of relationship between two nodes, which may be the result of interactions occurring between nodes. For example, for two nodes representing users, an edge may mean that users are friends in the context of a social networking system. Alternatively, an edge may mean that users have communicated with each other, one user has viewed another's profile, the users have attended the same high school, or any other means of relationship or interaction. For two nodes where at least one node does not represent a user, an edge may mean similar or different relationships or interactions. For example, the edge may indicate that the user clicked the "Like" button for a particular band only group or the user clicked on an advertisement. Alternatively, the edges may indicate that the two companies, each represented by the social networking system web page, are related to each other without explicit action by either company.

When a new object of a certain type is created, the social networking system can initialize a new node of that type, assign that node a unique object or node identifier, and begin adding data as an object if necessary. . For example, this may be the case when an individual first becomes a user of a social networking system, when a social networking system creates a new user profile, when a user starts a new group, when a new content item is uploaded to the social networking system, or when an object It can occur at any other time that is added or created within the social networking system. When a new object is created, an edge may be created by connecting an object node to a node representing a user who created the object. The social networking system can also automatically connect new object nodes or any existing nodes to other social graph nodes. For example, if a first user uploads a photo of a sports bar to a social networking system and then a fan page for that sports bar is created, the social networking system creates an edge between the user node and the fan page node without explicit action by the user. Can provide. In addition, if the second user posts a comment on the sports user's profile in the third user's profile, the second user's node and the third user's node are not allowed to do so without explicit action by either user regarding the sports bar node. It can be automatically connected to a bar node.

Users of social networking systems may communicate with or comment on content items, information or actions, for example; Clicking on a button or link associated with an approval (eg, a "like" button or equivalent); Share content items, user information or user behavior with other users; You can interact with social networking system objects in a variety of forms, such as by downloading or merely viewing content items. In addition, the interaction may be within a context of a social networking system, such as a computer-based application (eg, a video game that is only accessible and executable within a social networking system) or an application outside the social networking system that may or may not be connected to the social networking system (eg, Desktop web browser or mobile application). In addition, the interaction can also be purchased in the context of a social networking system or outside of a social networking system; Subscribing, commenting or subscribing to social networking system groups, webpages or fan pages; Sending current or past locations to a social networking system using a mobile device (“checking in” to a location); Scheduling a meeting, meeting, errand, vacation, task, goal, appointment, date, or any other event or calendar entry; Including an invitation to attend or to participate in a meeting, meeting, party, concert, play, or any other event. For example, a user can join a Chopin-only group, purchase a Chopin performance ticket, check in to a concert hall when the user arrives at a performance, and post a record of the performance review to a user profile. All of them constitute interactions.

In addition, users of social networking systems may interact with other users, become friends, view other users' profiles, communicate with other users, or have common friends within the social networking system. Can interact with them. In addition, a social networking system user may interact with content items, websites, other users, or other information outside of the environment of a web page of a social networking system that is connected to or associated with the social networking system. For example, an article on a news website may have a "Like" button that users of the social networking system can click to express their acceptance of the article. Similarly, a company's website may be able to directly join a company's dedicated social networking system group from the company's website. These interactions and any other suitable behavior within the context of the social networking system may be recorded in the social networking system data, which may be used to generate social endorsement information. The social endorsement information may include text, images, links, and / or any suitable form necessary to deliver the social endorsement information to the user.

Social endorsement information may be used to provide a social context for an advertisement that appears to a user during a particular viewing. 1 is a diagram of a process for providing social endorsement information for display with an advertisement, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, social networking system user data store 100 provides user data, and social networking system object data store 105 provides object data to intimacy / selection module 120. Social networking system interaction data store 110 also provides interaction data correlated with the provided user data and object data to intimacy / selection module 120. The ad store 130 provides the advertisement 135 with the social endorsement information 125 from the intimacy selection module 120 to the advertisement / guarantee combination module 140. The advertisement / guarantee combination module 140 sends the advertisement 135 and the social endorsement 145 to the third-party publisher 150 for display to the viewing user 160.

The user data store 100 stores user information, user account information, user profile and profile information, user relationships and other user related data. For example, user data store 100 may store a user's identity, a user's account settings, and a user's social networking system friends. In addition, the user data store 100 may store profile information such as personal information, demographic information and other types of descriptive information (career, education, hobbies or preferences, interests, location, etc.). The object data store 105 stores any information about the object. This may include descriptive information visible to social networking system users, such as user profile, group profile and fan page profile information; Message board contents; User generated content (eg comments, uploaded photos and videos and profile messages); Event information; It includes any other information accessible to social networking system users. In addition, the object data store 105 may be used by users, such as meta-tags, object keywords, category information, search indexes, and any other data that is accessible to social networking system users but cannot be viewed by social networking system users. You can store hidden object data. Interaction data store 110 stores data about user activities within a social networking system. This includes activity levels and usage statistics as well as specific interactions as described above. When a user interacts with an object, an edge between the user node and the object node can be created in the social graph; Such edges may be stored in the interaction data store 110. The interaction data store 110 may include information about a specific interaction and may include information about user nodes and object nodes associated with the interaction. In one embodiment, interaction data store 110 uses social graphs to identify object nodes and user nodes associated with the interaction.

In one embodiment, the ad 135 is a web-based ad that is displayed in the margin or other dedicated area of the website. In another embodiment, the advertisement 135 is displayed in a software application, video game, or mobile device application. Ad 135 may have a dedicated space within ad 135 displaying social endorsement information 125, referred to as a social endorsement footprint. Alternatively, the third-party issuer 150 may modify the advertisement 135 or the area in which the advertisement 135 is displayed (called ad occupancy space) to accommodate the social endorsement information 125. In some embodiments, advertisement 135 and social endorsement information 125 are combined before being sent to a third party publisher; In another embodiment, the advertisement 135 and social endorsement information 125 may be sent separately and combined by a third party publisher.

The above embodiments describing providing social endorsement information are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting. In other embodiments, there are more or fewer components that perform the same or substantially similar functionality as the components of the embodiment of FIG. 1. For example, user data store 100, object data store 105, and interactive data store 110 may all include the same storage entity. In addition, as described below, in some embodiments, the functionality of the intimacy / selection module may be provided by a social networking system; In other embodiments, all or some of these functions may be provided outside of the social networking system. In addition, examples of providing social endorsement information are shown in US patent application 12 / 898,662, which is incorporated herein by reference.

System configuration ( System Architecture )

2 is a high level block diagram illustrating a system environment suitable for selecting social endorsement information for display with an advertisement to a viewing user, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The system environment includes a viewing user 210, a viewing user 210 that is a member of the social networking system 220, an ad server 230, and an advertiser 240, all of which connect to the connection network 200. Communicate via The connection network may be the Internet, a local area network, a wireless network or any other network that enables communication between modules. The connection network 200 may use standard communication techniques and / or protocols. In alternative configurations, other modules and / or additional modules may be included in the system.

The viewing user 210 can access the connection network 200 through a website capable of displaying an advertisement, which website can include one or more web pages and can be hosted on a web server. Alternatively, the viewing user 210 can access the connection network 200 through the native application. In this example, the viewing user 210 may display an advertisement within a computer, laptop, netbook, tablet computer or mobile device or any other native application running on the device. Using the device, the connection network 200 can be accessed. The advertisements displayed to the user 210 watching may include text, images, video, audio or any other advertisement-related content. Ads may be static, animated, interactive, transparent, mobile, stationary, or displayed outside the initial viewing area of a website or application. Or in the case of a website, the first time the website is accessed, the advertisement may be combined with its own web page displayed upon access to the website. The advertisement may be displayed by a third party publisher, who may publish the advertisement on a website, mobile application or any other medium.

Social-networking system 220 may include a plurality of web pages hosted on one or more web servers. The plurality of web pages may display social networking system information. As mentioned above, these pages may include pages for user profiles, group profiles, fan pages, and other social networking system related pages. These pages may include, for example, personal information, user information, user behavior, group information, fan page information, warranty information, content items, user settings, group settings, search results, advertisements, ad tags, and any other social networking system related data. It can include various social networking system data. Social networking system data is stored in one or more social networking system databases. These databases and all other social networking system components communicate with the viewing user 210, the ad server 230, the advertiser 240, or any other module via the social networking system web server via the connection network 200. can do. The database may provide social networking system user data, user behavior or any other social networking system data when requested by another module.

The ad server 230 includes at least one web server connected with one or more databases. The database is web based and specifically stores a plurality of advertisements or any other advertisement type that may be for display in an application or on a mobile device. In addition, the ad server 230 may include a plurality of advertisements that include information that can be combined into an advertisement that can identify or describe the subject of the advertisement, the product or service represented by the advertisement, or any other characteristic, feature or attribute of the advertisement. You can save the tag. In some embodiments, the advertisement tag identifies specific social networking system objects that may be associated with the advertisement. In one embodiment, the advertiser selects ad tags; Alternatively, the social networking system or any third party can select the ad tags. The advertisement can be received from the advertiser 240 or any other entity that can provide for delivery by the ad server 230. The web server of the ad server may receive the advertisement for storage and provide the ad to any module that requests the ad from a database. In some examples, ad server 230 and advertiser 240 are the same entity. In some examples, the advertisements and associated ad tags may come from different sources. Ad server 230 may provide an advertisement with one or more accompanying ad tags, or ad server 230 may provide an advertisement without accompanying ad tags. Ad server 230 may, in response to receiving the request for the ad, request the ad from advertiser 240 in turn; Similarly, ad server 230 may request ad tags from advertiser 240 or any other module.

Advertiser 240 includes at least one web server coupled to one or more databases. The database may store advertisements delivered to the ad server 230 or any other module, and may store advertisement tags for stored advertisements or any other advertisements. Advertiser 240 may generate an ad tag for the advertisement before providing the advertisement to ad server 230 or any other module. Alternatively, advertiser 240 may generate an ad tag after an advertisement has been provided, eg, in response to a request for an ad tag by ad server 230 or any other module. Alternatively, instead of an ad tag, the ad server 230, advertiser 240 or any other entity may simply specify which object is associated with the ad in the social networking system for the purposes of the present invention. In such an embodiment, the ad server 230, the advertiser 240, or other entity may communicate information directly to the social networking system 220, or may do so through an intermediary. In one embodiment, the objects related to the advertisement are selected based on the identity of the user 210 watching. In one embodiment, social-networking system 220 determines which objects are associated with an advertisement; This may occur before or after the social networking system 220 receives the advertisement, knows the identity of the advertisement, or scans the advertisement for content. In various embodiments, there are more or fewer components that perform the same or substantially similar functionality as the components of the embodiment of FIG.

action( Operation )

3 is a block diagram illustrating a process for selecting social endorsement information from one or more candidate social endorsements for display with an advertisement, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Social endorsement information 370 may be selected in response to a request for social endorsement information 370. In one embodiment, this request comes from the advertisement 300 itself. For example, the advertisement 300 can have executable code embedded within the advertisement 300 that, when executed, sends a request for the social endorsement information 370 to the social networking system 220 or another entity. In some embodiments, a third party displaying advertising 300 requests social endorsement information 370. In some embodiments, the viewing user 210 transmits the user's identity to the advertisement 300 or a third party displaying the advertisement 300. The viewing user 210 may be identified as the advertisement 300 or third party publisher before or after the request for social endorsement information 370. In some embodiments, the viewing user 210 is not identified by the advertisement 300 or third party publisher; Instead, the watching user 210 sends the user's identity to the social networking system 220 by requesting one of the advertisement 300, the third party publisher, the social networking system 220, or any third entity. Can transmit The viewing user 210 may, for example, have an IP address, a cookie that stores the user's identity, or the advertisement 300 or a third-party publisher when the viewing user 210 is subscribed to the social networking system 220. The user may be identified in a number of ways, via an interface with the social networking system 220 to receive the user's identity from 220, or any other suitable means for identification.

The social networking system interaction 340 is identified between the objects 320 regarding the advertisement 300 and the users 330 associated with the viewing user 210. In one embodiment, this includes first identifying the social networking system objects 320 for the advertisement 300 and then identifying the social networking system users 330 associated with the viewing user 210. . In an alternative embodiment, users 330 associated with the user 210 watching are first identified, followed by objects 320 related to the advertisement 300. In another embodiment, objects 320 related to advertisement 300 and users 330 associated with viewing user 210 are identified at the same time. If the objects 320 for the advertisement 300 and the users 330 associated with the viewing user 210 are identified, the interactions 340 between the users 330 and the objects 320 may be identified. Can be identified. Alternatively, in one embodiment, only users 330 associated with the viewing user 210 who have interacted with the objects 320 are identified. Any method or order of identifying one or more interactions 340 between the one or more objects 320 regarding the advertisement 300 and the one or more users 330 associated with the viewing user 210 may be used. have.

The social networking system objects 320 for the advertisement 300 can be identified in various ways. In one embodiment, the ad 300 includes an ad tag. Such an advertisement tag can identify particular objects of the social networking system 220. For example, the ad tag may be in the social networking system 220 by a URL for the fan page, a social networking system index number for the fan page, a keyword that the social networking system 220 analyzes to identify the fan page, or the content of the ad tag. The fan page for a particular punk band can be identified by any other method suitable for identifying the object. Alternatively, the ad server 230, the advertiser 240, or any other entity may identify the objects 320 of the social networking system 220 related to the ad 300. Such identification may occur separately from or in conjunction with the transmission of the advertisement 300, and may occur between the social networking system 220 and the advertisement server 230, the advertiser 240, the third-party publisher or any other entity. May include communication. For example, the advertiser 240 may provide a third party publisher with an advertisement 300 for selling shoes, the URL of a social networking system web page for the company that manufactures the shoes, (social networking system 220 may be a shoe brand). Brands of shoes related to sales (which may be used to identify dedicated groups) and stores near users 200 (social networking system 220 may be used to identify communications made to the store) for social networking systems Communicate to 220.

Ad server 230, advertiser 240, third party publisher or any other entity may cause social networking system 220 to identify objects 320 in social networking system 220 for advertisement 300. In the event of not providing usable information or data (such as an advertisement tag), social-networking system 220 may identify related objects 320 by various other means. In one embodiment, the identity of the advertisement 300 itself is provided to the social networking system 220. In this example, social-networking system 220 may identify objects 320 related to the advertisement at a pre-specified index that correlates the advertisements to objects related to the advertisement. This pre-specified index may be populated by advertisers or any other party. In one embodiment, if the identity of the advertisement 300 is provided, the social networking system 220 determines which objects were previously identified as being associated with the advertisement 300, and the objects associated with the advertisement 300 ( 320 as a basis for identifying.

In one embodiment where the ad 300 itself is provided to the social networking system 220 (instead of the ad tag or other identifying information), the social networking system 220 may scan or analyze the ad 300 to display the ad ( 300 may identify a characteristic, attribute, object or any other identifying characteristic; It may scan the text of the advertisement 300, identify an image in the advertisement 300, search an internet website displaying the advertisement 300 and scan or parse the content of those websites, or the advertisement 300 And any other method of identifying social networking system objects related to the content or component of the ad or advertisement 300. In such an embodiment, once the characteristics, attributes, and characteristics of the advertisement 300 are determined, the social networking system 220 may identify the objects 320 related to the advertisement 300 using any necessary means. . For example, when the advertisement 300 is received, the social networking system 220 scans the advertisement 300 and checks if the advertisement includes the phrase "DVD" and "Phil's Movie Store" and an image of the "The Godfather" movie poster. You can find it. In addition, social networking system 220 may later use the Phil's Movie Store to sell social network system events for DVD sales, fan pages for popular websites, and the concept of "The Godfather" (eg (Which may include a node of the social networking system 220 to which the listed users are connected)) as the objects 320 for the advertisement 300. These examples are merely illustrative; Any suitable means of identifying the objects 320 regarding the advertisement 300 may be used.

Social networking system users 330 related to the user 210 being watched may be identified. In one embodiment, this includes identifying the user 210 watching in the context of the social networking system 220 and all social networking system users that are "friends." In another embodiment, only a subset of the friends of the user 210 watching is identified; This subset may be a group defined by one or more specific characteristics (eg, relatives of the user 210 watching), may be selected by other criteria, or may be arbitrarily selected. In an alternative embodiment, social networking system users 330 are identified that are not explicitly friends with the viewing user 210 but that are related to the viewing user 210 in another way. For example, users 330 may be members in the same network, based on common user profile information (same favorite movie, attended the same high school, etc.) based on a common friend with the user 210 being watched. Can be identified based on demographic data (eg, the same geographical location) or based on any feature, characteristic, information, characteristic or attribute. In one embodiment, social-networking system 220 uses the social graph to determine which users 330 are connected to the viewing user 210; In this example, social-networking system 220 may identify users 330 whose nodes are connected with the node of the user whose node is being viewed by the edge. In one embodiment, only users 330 associated with the viewing user 210 who have interacted with one or more identified objects 320 are identified. Any suitable method of identifying the users 330 associated with or interacting with the objects 320 may be used.

Interactions between users 330 and objects 320 are identified. As discussed above, interaction 340 may take many forms; For example, if a user associated with the viewing user 210 subscribes to a group associated with the advertisement 300, this interaction 340 may be identified. Similarly, interaction 340 may exist between object 320 and user 330, but this interaction 340 may not be identified. In one embodiment, one user 330 associated with the viewing user 210 may interact with two or more objects 320 related to the advertisement 300; No interaction, one interaction, two or more interactions can be identified. In another embodiment, the identified user 330 may not interact with any object 320. Similarly, object 320 may not be interacted with by any user 330. Interaction 340 may occur outside the context of social-networking system 220; In this example, interaction 340 can be communicated to social networking system 220.

Interaction 340 may be identified in a variety of ways. In one embodiment, all interactions 340 between objects 320 and users 330 are identified. In another embodiment, only specific interactions 340 are identified. Interaction 340 appropriately identifies the type of interaction, interacted objects 320, interacting users 330, the identity of the user 210 watching, the advertisement 300, or interaction 340. It may be identified based on any other feature, attribute or feature needed to do so. For example, in one embodiment, only interactions 340 may be identified that include purchasing a product or service. Similarly, in one embodiment, only interactions 340 between users 330 that are relatives of user 210 watching and objects 320 on the fan page may be identified. For one user 330 who interacted with more than one object 320, only one interaction, one or more interactions or no interactions may be identified. For example, in one embodiment, if a user 330 purchases a car and joins a group of model-specific social networking systems of the car, the car purchase may be the only interaction identified and vice versa.

In one embodiment, one or more identified interactions are associated with correlated interacting user 300 and interacted object 320 to generate one or more candidate social endorsements 350. Thus, each of these one or more social endorsements 350 includes information describing the social networking system interaction 340 between the user 330 associated with the user 210 watching and the object 320 associated with the advertisement 300. It includes. Thus, in one embodiment, each candidate social endorsement 350 may be used as social endorsement information 370.

Intimacy scores may be calculated for each candidate social endorsement 350 between the candidate social endorsement 350 and the user 210 watching. In one embodiment, the intimacy score is calculated by the intimacy / selection module 360. In one embodiment, intimacy / selection module 360 includes two separate discrete modules. All or part of the functionality of the intimacy / selection module 360 may be implemented within or external to the social networking system 220. The intimacy score is the likelihood that the user 210 is expected to click on the ad 300, the relevance of the user watching the ad 300 and the candidate social endorsement 350, or the user watching 210, the ad 300 , Social endorsement information 370 or any other entity, attribute, property, value, information, data, or any other quantifiable measure related to data or concepts. In one embodiment, intimacy scores are not calculated for candidate social endorsements, and candidate social endorsements are selected using other criteria.

The intimacy score may be calculated based on the type of interaction 340 represented by each candidate social endorsement 350. For example, an intimacy score for candidate social endorsement 350 representing a purchase of a book may be greater than an intimacy score for candidate social endorsement 350 representing a posting of a book's review, which in turn is "good" for the object representing the book. "May be greater than an intimacy score for candidate social endorsement 350 indicating a click of a button. In addition, the intimacy score may be calculated based on the object 320 or the user 330 represented by each candidate social endorsement 350. For example, the fan page may be weighted higher than the uploaded picture of the user, and relatives of the user 210 watching may be weighted higher than the elementary classmates. Intimacy scores may be calculated based on the type of advertisement 300; For example, candidate social endorsement 350 indicating a purchase may have a higher affinity score than other candidate social endorsements 350 when the advertisement 300 includes a sale at a shoe store. Intimacy scores can be calculated based on any component, module, entity, information, user, property, attribute, value, data, or concept. The intimacy score represents any kind of amount that represents the possible interest of the viewer watching for anything about social endorsement, whether based on historical information or any other prediction or measurement means.

Intimacy scores may be pre-specified for a particular candidate social endorsement 350, for a particular viewing user 210, or for a particular advertisement 300. Intimacy scores can also be calculated according to pre-specified formulas or equations. Alternatively, the intimacy score may be calculated dynamically, depending on the user 210 watching, the advertisement 300, the candidate social endorsement 350, or any other attribute, value, entity, information, characteristic or data. Intimacy scores can be calculated based on a number of factors or one factor. In addition, the intimacy score can be attenuated over time. In one embodiment, the intimacy score may be calculated based on several factors, where one or more factors may attenuate over time and one or more factors may not attenuate over time. The attenuation ratio for the intimacy score may depend on the type of interaction 340, the type of object 320, or the identity of the user 330. For example, the attenuation rate for posting a message to a fan page profile may be faster than the attenuation rate for planning a party at a particular nightclub using the calendar function of the social networking system.

The intimacy / selection module 360 selects the candidate social endorsement 350 and provides it as the social endorsement information 370. In one embodiment, this selection is based on candidate social endorsement intimacy scores. Candidate social endorsement 350 with the highest affinity score may be selected. In another embodiment, candidate social endorsement 350 may be selected based only on a portion of the intimacy score. In another embodiment, candidate social endorsement 350 may be selected based on the attenuation rate of the intimacy score. Any suitable method may be used to select and provide candidate social endorsement 350 as social endorsement information 370 based on the intimacy score. Alternatively, candidate social endorsement 350 may be selected without consideration of intimacy scores. In one embodiment, intimacy scores are not calculated and candidate social endorsement 350 is selected based on other criteria. In one embodiment, multiple candidate social endorsements may be selected and used as social endorsement information 370. Alternatively, multiple candidate social endorsements can be merged and displayed as social endorsement information 370. In one embodiment, social endorsement information 370 is displayed in a social endorsement occupancy space within advertisement 300. In another embodiment, social endorsement information 370 is displayed outside of advertisement 300. In another embodiment, a third-party publisher adjusts the dimensions or format of advertisement 300 to display social endorsement information 370.

4 is a block diagram of a process for selecting social endorsement information for a particular example, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. In this example, the advertisement 300 is an advertisement promoting the concert 400. The concert advertisement 400 includes a social endorsement information occupation space 410 and an advertisement tag 420. The ad tag 420 identifies the objects 320 in the social networking system 220; In particular, the objects 320 are identified: the band playing the concert, the ticket seller for the concert, the album the band released, the venue of the concert and the fan page dedicated to the concert.

In this example, the viewing user 210 is the tom 430. The tom is identified as social networking system 220, and users 330 of social networking system 220 associated with the tom are identified. These users 330 are girlfriend Rachel, younger brother Steve, friend Jason, teacher Claire and coworker Bebe. Because Tom and "friends" in the context, both Bebe and Tom are listing their employers in their profile, the fifth user (Bebe) is automatically determined by social networking system 220. The interaction between the objects 320 and the users 330 is identified; In this example, there are five such interactions. Rachel clicked the Like button on a band-specific web page (440). Steve bought the band's album (442) and posted a message to the concert fan page (448). Claire also bought an album (444), and Bebe recently checked in to a venue for another concert using a mobile device (446). Note that Jason did not interact with any objects 320 about the concert advertisement 400, and none of the users 330 interacted with the target seller object.

These five interactions include candidate social endorsements 350. This example intimacy / selection module 470 calculates an intimacy score for each of the candidate social endorsements 350. In this example, the intimacy score is calculated based primarily on the strength and type of relationship between the user 330 and the viewing user 210 at the interaction 340 of the candidate social endorsement 350, where Rachel is the social member of the band. The highest social affinity score is assigned to the candidate social endorsement 350, which includes clicking on a like button 440 on the networking system web page. In addition, in this example, candidate social endorsement 350 with the highest affinity score is selected and provided as social endorsement information 370; Accordingly, social endorsement information including "Rachel likes the band" is provided to the concert advertisement 400. Note that this example is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to be limiting in any way.

5 is a flowchart of a process for selecting social endorsement information for display with an advertisement, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. First, a request for social endorsement information 370 is received 500 for display to the user 210 who is watching with the advertisement 300. Next, social networking objects 320 regarding the advertisement 300 are identified (505). Interactions 340 between the identified objects 320 and the social networking system users 330 associated with the viewing user 210 are identified 510. Candidate social endorsement 350 is generated by associating 515 one or more identified interactions 340 with interacting users 330 and interacted objects 320. An intimacy score indicating an intimacy between the candidate social endorsement 350 and the viewing user 210 is calculated 520 for each candidate social endorsement 350. Finally, candidate social endorsement 350 is selected 525 to provide as social endorsement information 370 based at least in part on the calculated affinity score for candidate social endorsement 350.

summary

The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purpose of illustration; It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching.

Portions of this specification describe embodiments of the invention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on information. The description and representation of these algorithms are widely used by those skilled in the data processing arts to effectively convey the substance of the invention to others skilled in the art. It should be understood that these operations, described functionally, computationally or logically, are implemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits, microcode, and the like. In addition, it has sometimes been proved that it is also simple to represent the arrangement of operations with modules without losing generality. The described operations and their associated modules may be used in software, firmware, hardware or any combination thereof.

Any steps, operations or processes described herein may be performed or implemented alone or in combination with other devices, one or more hardware modules or software modules. In one embodiment, a software module is embodied in a computer program product having a computer-readable medium containing computer program code, the computer program code carrying out any or all steps, actions or processes described. Can be executed by a computer processor.

Embodiments of the invention may also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. Such an apparatus may be specifically configured for the required purpose and / or may comprise a general purpose computing device which is selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in a computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a non-transitory tangible computer-readable storage medium, or any kind of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, which may be connected by a computer system bus. In addition, any computing system mentioned in the specification may include a single processor or may be an architecture that uses a multiprocessor design to increase computing power.

Embodiments of the invention may also be directed to products made with the computing process described herein. Such products may include information generated as a result of a computing process, wherein the information is stored in a non-transitory type computer readable storage medium and may be stored in any form of computer program product or other data combination described herein . ≪ / RTI >

Finally, the language used herein has in principle been selected for easy-to-read guidance purposes and may not be selected to delineate or limit the gist of the invention. Accordingly, the technical scope of the present invention is intended to be defined not by this specification but by any claims that are filed on the basis of this specification. Thus, the description of embodiments of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.

Claims (23)

Receiving a request to display an advertisement with social endorsement information to a viewing user that is a user of the social networking system;
Identifying one or more objects in a social networking system related to the advertisement;
Identifying one or more interactions between the one or more identified objects and one or more other users of the social networking system;
Selecting and providing candidate social endorsement as social endorsement information; And
Providing an advertisement and a selected social endorsement for display to the user being watched,
Each interaction includes an action taken by one or more other users with respect to one or more identified objects,
Wherein each interaction comprises a candidate social endorsement, wherein the social endorsement information is selected to provide an advertisement. The method of claim 1,
Computing affinity scores for the viewing user for each candidate social endorsement, wherein the computer-implemented method of selecting social endorsement information to provide an advertisement. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the candidate social endorsement is selected based on the calculated intimacy score. The method of claim 1,
Identifying one or more objects in the social networking system related to the advertisement includes receiving explicitly identifying the identified objects in association with the advertisement information. Computer-implemented to select the social endorsement information and provide the advertisement. Way. The method of claim 1,
Identifying one or more objects in a social networking system related to the advertisement comprises analyzing the advertisement to identify objects related to the advertisement. The method of claim 5, wherein
Parsing the advertisement comprises parsing the advertisement against text terms relating to one or more identified objects. The computer-implemented method of selecting social endorsement information to provide an advertisement. The method of claim 5, wherein
Analyzing the advertisement includes receiving an advertisement tag in association with the advertisement, wherein the advertisement tag selects social endorsement information that includes information identifying one or more identified objects to provide a computer-implemented advertisement. Way. The method of claim 5, wherein
Analyzing the advertisement may include identifying a webpage associated with the advertisement and parsing the webpage against text terms relating to one or more identified objects, the computer providing the advertisement by selecting social endorsement information. How to implement. The method of claim 5, wherein
Analyzing the advertisement includes identifying a webpage associated with the advertisement, wherein the one or more identified objects are associated with the webpage to select social endorsement information to provide the advertisement. The method of claim 1,
A user-viewing computer selects social endorsement information to provide an advertisement, the social networking system making connections with respective other users of the social networking system associated with the identified interactions. The method of claim 1,
The at least one identified interaction includes a purchase associated with one of the identified objects by one of the other users, the computer-implemented method of selecting social endorsement information to provide an advertisement. The method of claim 1,
The at least one identified interaction includes an indication of affiliation with the identified object by one of the other users. The method of claim 1,
The at least one identified interaction includes checking in at one location by one of the other users,
Wherein the location is an identified object, selecting social endorsement information to provide an advertisement. The method of claim 1,
And wherein the at least one identified interaction occurs at a website external to the social networking system. The method of claim 1,
Wherein the at least one identified interaction occurs outside of the social networking system to select and provide social endorsement information. The method of claim 1,
Wherein the one or more calculated affinity scores for the candidate social endorsement are calculated based on the identified interactions associated with the candidate social endorsement. The method of claim 1,
Wherein the one or more calculated affinity scores for the candidate social endorsement are calculated based on the identified objects associated with the candidate social endorsement. The method of claim 1,
At least one calculated affinity score for the candidate social endorsement is calculated based on other users associated with the candidate social endorsement. The method of claim 1,
At least one calculated affinity score for the candidate social endorsement is calculated based on a decay factor. The method of claim 19,
Wherein the ratio of the attenuation factor is based on the type of behavior associated with the identified interaction, selecting social endorsement information to provide an advertisement. The method of claim 19,
Wherein the ratio of the attenuation factor is based on the identified objects associated with the identified interaction, selecting social endorsement information to provide an advertisement. The method of claim 19,
Wherein the ratio of the attenuation factor is based on other users associated with the identified interaction, selecting social endorsement information to provide an advertisement. A computer processor; And
A computer-implemented system for selecting and providing social endorsement information comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program module configured to run on a computer processor, the computer-implemented system comprising:
The computer program module is:
A receiving module, configured to receive a request to display an advertisement with social endorsement information to a viewing user that is a user of the social networking system;
An object identification module configured to identify one or more objects in a social networking system related to the advertisement;
An interaction identification module configured to identify one or more interactions between one or more identified objects and one or more other users of the social networking system;
A selection module, configured to select the candidate social endorsement and provide it as social endorsement information; And
A module that provides an advertisement and a selected social endorsement for display to the user watching,
Each interaction includes an action taken by one or more other users with respect to one or more identified objects,
Each interaction comprising a candidate social endorsement, wherein the computer-implemented system selects social endorsement information and provides an advertisement.

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